1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method, system, and computer program product for mapping a source workload pattern for a source storage system to a target workload pattern for a target storage system.
2. Description of the Related Art
A Multi-tiered Storage System is a strategic networked storage method where data is stored on various types of storage devices primarily based on criteria of the access, frequency of use, security and data recovery requirements. For space and performance optimization, the data is transferred between high-cost and low-cost storage media. Such systems exist because high-speed storage devices, such as Solid State devices (SSD), Hard Disk Drive Arrays, etc., are more expensive (per byte stored) than the slower storage devices, such as optical discs and magnetic tape drives. While it would be ideal to have all data available on high-speed devices all the time, this is prohibitively expensive for many organizations. Instead, tiered systems store the bulk of the enterprise's data on slower devices, and then migrate more frequently accessed data to faster media when needed. The advantage is that the total amount of stored data can be much larger than the capacity of the active storage media available. In effect, tiered systems turn the fast storage devices into caches for the slower mass storage devices.
Storage tiering is the placement of data on different devices in the multi-tiered storage based on the type of usage, performance and capacity requirements of the data and the characteristics of the devices. Automated storage tiering programs automatically manage data placement by observing the characteristics of data in the multi-tiered storage and automatically moving the data among the different tiers of storage. Automated storage tiering decisions are based on observation of workloads or pre-set administrator policies which statically partition resources. To determine where to store data in a multi-tier storage system, a storage manager program will analyze data access patters, workloads on the storage devices, and usage of the devices and determine the tiers and devices within tiers on which to locate data.